Chapter Two of 'Wrestling's Olympic Fight': Wrestling for TV eyeballs

Feb. 26, 2013

Former Iowa wrestler and coach Jim Zalesky.

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The second installment of the Des Moines Register’s seven-month coverage commitment to the International Olympic Committee’s decision on whether to include wrestling at the 2020 Games turns to television.

==== CAMERAS MEAN MONEY — AND MOMENTUM ====

At the 1983 NCAA Tournament, Chris Bevilacqua and Jim Zalesky came together in the first round at 158 pounds.

Thirty years later, they’ve come together again.

Zalesky, a three-time NCAA champion who coached Iowa to three national team titles, is head coach at Oregon State. Bevilacqua, a Penn State all-American, became one of the most successful individuals in sports enterprises and programming in the United States.

Once, they shared the mat. Now, they share a common thought about how the sport of wrestling can command more attention as it faces the IOC threat of begin bumped after the next Olympic cycle.

As sports outside the mainstream fight for valuable TV time, some on the fringe like rodeo, pro bowling, fishing and poker earn more consistent tube time across the calendar.

“One of the things that hurts wrestling is there’s nothing to sell,” Zalesky said. “Poker’s on TV and you can sell the chips and the cards and all that and (viewers) can wear the sponsor’s stuff. If it’s on TV, it’s all about sponsorship.

“That’s one thing that hurts wrestling. Nobody’s going to buy wrestling shoes or singlets (beyond wrestlers) You think about all the other stuff that’s on TV, with the X Games and all that, they can sell something. The one thing that hurts wrestling is we don’t really have anything that the normal person can go out and buy.”

Bevilacqua, co-founder of New York-based media and commercial rights advisory company BHV, walked the same mental road without knowing his ex-opponent’s thoughts.

As a businessman and entrepreneur, Bevilacqua created CSTV — the first 24-hour cable network in the U.S. dedicated solely to college and amateur sports. The company was purchased in 2006 by CBS for $325 million and turned into the CBS Sports Network.

“Some of these other sports, niche sports like rodeo and poker, which have a more thoughtful presence on television, it’s not necessarily driven by it being better programming or more exciting programming — because many times it’s not,” Bevilacqua said.

“The niche sports know how to package and get sponsor support. Whether you’re a fishing advertiser or poker advertiser, you have a core audience you want to reach. The way you do that is to put your programming in front of your core audience.

“Those advertising are the underpinning of getting exposure for those niche sports. Some do it well, some do it not so well. I would put wrestling in that group that doesn’t do it so well.”

Wrestling, in general, has long-time connections with companies such as Ascis, Brute Wrestling, adidas and others — but Bevilacqua said it takes more.

“It’s kind of hit and miss all over the place,” he said.

ESPN COMMITMENT GROWS - BUT IS IT ENOUGH TO CREATE CHANGE?

ESPN has continued to increase its presence each season it has covered the NCAA Championships since it first carried the Division II event in 1980.

In the early years, the network only showed the championship matches. In 2005, the network began showing quarterfinal and semifinal rounds — and with the addition of ESPNU and ESPN3, the company has expanded to stream four-mat coverage in the two rounds before the finals.

When the championships are held in Des Moines next month, ESPN3 will carry the opening round for the first time.

The mainstream and biggest eyeballs, though, rest on the showcase channels such as ESPN and ESPN2.

“Seasonality, I think, too (has an impact), especially when it comes to college sports,” said Dan Margulis, director of programming and acquisitions for ESPNU. “A sport like wrestling does really well for us when we do it, but it overlaps with the meat and potatoes of the winter season when we’ve got college basketball.

“Baseball, softball, lacrosse and those sports have a little more opportunity because basketball is done.”

ESPN has seen value in maintaining its relationship with wrestling, committing to a contract to carry the NCAA Championships through 2024.

ESPN3, in particular, carried the 2011 World Championships and is schedule to telecast this year’s version of that event. That platform also has shown three ACC duals and the ACC Championships in the past year.
Officials with ESPN total minutes logged across computers, smart phones, tablets and Xbox systems were up 108 percent compared to the season before.

QUESTIONS CONSIDERED AT HOME, AND ABROAD

Bevilacqua, who created the first 24-hour college conference sports network with the Mountain West Conference, said increasing awareness of the sport must happen as a global coalition — rather than each country for itself.

“You can’t look through this through the domestic lens.” said Bevilacqua, who has helped shape record-breaking TV contracts for baseball’s Texas Rangers and the Pac-12 Conference — and now has been hired to lead negotiations for the Big East's new rights deal. “This needs coordination globally, which is probably where (governing body) FILA has fallen short.

“It hasn’t been a great global steward.”

Conventional thinking also needs challenged, Bevilacqua said, to unite a sport where more than 200 countries compete internationally.

“Part of getting together globally, we need to be aligning with the rest of world,” he said. “I know it won’t sound popular, but why do we have (college) folkstyle and freestyle? Why not be like the world, freestyle all the time everywhere. Why do we need folkstyle?

“I know that wouldn’t sit well with some, but line it up the same way and all the rest of the things will follow.”

Another idea, Bevilacqua said: Create a partnership with UFC and MMA.

“They should create as to a direct alignment to MMA as possible,” he said. “It’s very clear that wrestling is to them what college football is to the NFL, and college basketball is to the NBA. MMA, you’ve got most of the top guys from wrestling. They did it off the backs of wrestling.

“MMA now is a $2 (billion) or $3 billion industry. And like it or not, it isn’t going anywhere and it’s only going to get bigger. There’s a huge opportunity there that somebody should be thinking about.”

Register reporter Andy Hamilton contributed to this report.

==== BEVILACQUA ON VIDEO ====

Sports programming and rights expert, Chris Bevilacqua, a former all-America wrestler at Penn State, was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2012:

==== COMING UP DURING THE PROJECT: BIG NAMES BEHIND THE SPORT ====

Movie and television actor Billy Baldwin is a long-time supporter of wrestling, helping a group organize funds to save the sport at Binghamton University when it was threatened.

So Baldwin, who wrestled at Binghamton, understands when the sport faces a threat.

“I don’t know how they (IOC) came to this conclusion,” said Baldwin, in a telephone interview Monday with the Des Moines Register. “… It’s perplexing to me.”

Baldwin, whose movie credits include “Backdraft,” “Born on the Fourth of July,” “Flatliners” and “Internal Affairs” said the sport molds and shapes lives.

“There’s probably no better example of teaching toughness, discipline and work ethic,” he said. “The tools it provides you transcend the sport. It’s part of my DNA and makeup, and is a big part of where I am today because of what you take from it.”

Baldwin said he will attend most of the NCAA Championships next month in Des Moines.

Though he moved on to bright lights and big screens, wrestling remained a part of his life.

“I remember one time in high school, I was suppose to wrestle 147 (pounds) and we had a 5-pound allowance, to I could be 152,” he said. “I got on the scale and I was 161 ¾ . Try being a kid in 11th or 12th grade in that situation.

“It’s a very special breed of athlete who can put on wrestling gear, be more than nine pounds over with about three hours to make it, and figure out a way to do it.”

(Read more from Baldwin during other installments of the project.)

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Return to the “Wrestling’s Olympic Fight” page from now until the IOC’s final vote for continued coverage of the story.

For coverage ideas, to submit videos or other content, etc., contact me at … brmiller@dmreg.com